ABSTRACT
DURING the first two hundred years of the Empire the mines were exploited with great activity and brought considerable resources in to the treasury. Although certain of the deposits which were worked under the Republic appeared exhausted or had been gradually abandoned by the concession-holders or the administrators, who were at a loss when dealing with other than the richest ores, further deposits were discovered in the outlying parts of the territory; and the number of men occupied in the extraction of metal and stone tended on the whole to increase. But the barbarian invasions and the domestic troubles delivered the same blow to the mining industry as to all the others. Moreover the fate which awaited the workers in the galleries of the mines was so hard that they had no incentive to remain and in several provinces, especially in Thrace, they appealed to the hordes who were assembled beyond the frontier, assisted their invasion and confided themselves to the invaders.
